The transition into college is not an easy one to make. I refuse to sugarcoat that fact.
It’s a period filled with new habits, tearful goodbyes and a sudden realization that you are now officially in charge of your own life.
That’s not to say it doesn’t have its benefits. As a now-sophomore, I consider my first-year experience to be one of the most influential times of my life, and I genuinely wouldn’t change it for the world.
First years, I know you may be wondering what advice a sophomore could possibly give you, but don’t forget I was the one most recently in your shoes. I made enough mistakes my first year, so here are a few tricks that kept me from dropping out.
As a people-pleaser at heart, I was initially terrified of disappointing my professors. They stood at the front of a huge lecture hall and knew far more about a single topic than I could ever dream of.
Then I forced myself to go to office hours. I met with one of my professors, Ryan Barilleaux, in a much more casual setting. I got to see his office, and he told me about his family and how he got to Miami University. The next class, he remembered my name.
After that, I felt comfortable sending him emails, asking him to review my assignment or even popping in for advice. I excelled in that class, and I attribute it directly to that first office hour I attended.
Keeping your personal space clean is also surprisingly beneficial. This can be your dorm room, your desk or car if you commute, or even just your laptop and Google Drive. Nothing kills a productive feeling faster than realizing your spaces are a mess.
If you’re living in the dorms, your personal space becomes confined to a single room — half of one if you have a roommate. By keeping it clean, you’re not only preventing yourself from being a bad roommate, but you’re also directly influencing your mood.
You also become more willing to invite people over when your space is clean. Some of my best memories from my first year were formed in my dorm room, and I wouldn’t have opened my door if the place was a mess.
I also recommend becoming active in a club. This is likely one of the most well-known pieces of advice, said by every orientation leader and resident assistant for a reason. In college, you no longer have the same few people in every class, and you tend to lose a lot of day-to-day interactions that high school provided freely.
In my first month of classes, I partook in no clubs and found myself sucked into the all-too-common trend of bed-rotting.
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Once I started joining clubs, I felt I was gaining back that routine I so dearly missed. I would see people weekly who shared common interests, and I had things to tell my mom about.
I now consider many people I met through clubs to be some of the best friends I’ve ever had. I went out with them, had meals together and texted them constantly about how much I missed them over summer.
The last thing I suggest tends to catch people off guard, and that’s to break your own rules every once in a while.
I have a rule about not staying out terribly late on a school night, but I broke that rule a few times. Now I have some amazing memories, and I still managed to make it to class the next morning.
College is all about finding balance and what works best for you. You’ll never test your limits effectively if you stick to the same routine for the rest of your life, and college is the perfect playground to test your boundaries (within safe reason, of course).
All that to say, enjoy your first year. It’s a time of great self-discovery, and as I’m sure you’ve heard a thousand times — it goes by in the blink of an eye.
Elise Hanna is the Digital Media Editor and a sophomore strategic communication major. Alongside writing, she is involved in Kappa Alpha Pi and enjoys the Detroit Lions, the Muppets and learning about the Watergate scandal.
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